The disclosure is directed to a termination system and components thereof for making a fiber optic connection in a quick, easy, and reliable manner. Specifically, the termination systems disclosed use an optical fiber handler that attaches to an optical fiber or buffer layer of the optical fiber and cooperates with other components for preparing the optical fiber and/or making a mechanical splice optical connection.
Optical fiber is increasingly being used for a variety of applications in both public and private networks for broadband voice, video, data transmission, and the like. Benefits of optical fiber use include extremely wide bandwidth and low noise operation. With the increasing and varied use of optical fibers, it is important to provide efficient methods of interconnecting and reconfiguring optical fiber pathways. Fiber optic connectors that mate using an adapter have been developed for this purpose. It is important that fiber optic connectors not significantly attenuate or alter the transmitted signal. Fusion-splicing is one method of providing an optical connector on an end of a cable. Specifically, a factory-polished optical fiber connector pigtail may be fusion-spliced to an end of a fiber optic cable. However, fusion splicing requires a fusion splicer and training for the craftsman.
To overcome the need for a fusion splicer and training, fiber optic connectors were developed that allow a mechanical splice in the field. However, the quality of the mechanical splice can vary widely depending on the design of fiber optic connector, preparation of the optical fiber, alignment of the fibers, installation by the craft, etc. For instance the craft may need to remove buffer layers from the optical fiber and then remove a coating on the optical fiber. Thereafter, the optical fiber may require cleaving to the appropriate length for insertion into the mechanical splice connector. If the optical attenuation of the field splice is too high, the craftsman needs to reconnect the fiber optic connector to achieve a desirable result. For these reasons, termination of fiber optic cables with a simple, reliable, and easy to assemble manner is challenging, especially for the unskilled craftsman. Thus, there is an unresolved a need for a robust fiber optic cable termination that is simple, reliable, and easy to assemble.